jackass n SMYTH 406 'heavy rough boats used in Newfoundland'; cp O
Sup2 jackass 5. A two-masted vessel rigged for the seal hunt with square,
rather than fore-and-aft, sails on the mainmast; attrib in jackass brig;
BEAVER1: BEAVER HAT MAN. 1826 [Glascock] i, 140 It
was notorious that a considerable part of the property plundered was secreted and carried
away in boats, called 'jack-asses,' to the outports. 1892 Christmas Bells 14 Our
skipper could not read or write, so to make matters clear and intelligible for him, I
drew all the different vessels as he described themone was a brig; another a
jackass brig; another a schooner with a square main-topsail (common rig in those days);
every spar and sail was minutely drawn out from his description. 1933 GREENE 45-6 Some
[of the sealing schooners] were of special and local design. and so original in rig and
suits of sail for the Ice, as to earn such quaint names as the 'JackAss-Brigs' or the
'Beaver-Hat-Men'; and almost all of these craft were built by the handy sealers
themselves. 1961 Evening Telegram 23 May, p. 6 The type of twomasted craft on
whose mainmast upper square sails would be fitted temporarily, to make a jackass brig,
was the vessel that regularly was all square-rigged on the foremast and all
fore-and-aft-rigged on the mainmast... They were numerous in the Newfoundland trade.